Talent or heart?

By Morgan Payne

Perhaps launching this blog during the same week as the awesomely audacious Grantland is an omen. I’m not sure if it is a good omen or a disastrous one, but there has to be some significance in the timing, right? Here’s to hoping we enjoy some semblance of success. Anyways here is my first crack at this blog thing.

Talent or heart? Too easy for me to answer. I would take talent over heart every day of the week, and twice on Sundays. (Mind you, this rationale applies best to basketball). However, I seem to be in the minority in my opinion. Every talking head on TV and in print touts “team players” who have “intangibles” and are “fundamentally sound”. To me that’s code for a nice, boring (usually white) guy that people assume will do whatever it takes to win. But guess what? Those guys don’t capture my attention, and therefore aren’t as worthy of my, or the public’s, attention.

How many times have you heard some color commentator say something along the lines of “I would take a bunch of hard workers over talent on my team?” That is the most politically correct, scared line of crap, but I get it. Most of the people saying that are insiders and actually do value those type of players because they know what it takes to win. Beyond a shade of doubt, championship teams need talent but also extremely hard workers and a couple of glue guys. The same people who truly value team players with heart do so because they don’t get coaches fired as quickly as talented, braggadocios types. If I were in a coach’s position, or an NBA insider’s, I would feel the same way. However, I’m a fan. What I have a problem with is fans agreeing with this line of thinking. Fans hear these type of players are important to building championship teams and automatically assume that’s what their favorite team needs. In most cases, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Sure, heart and fundamentals will help the team win a couple of extra games occasionally, but in the grand scheme of things who cares? Your favorite team either wins the championship, or like 29 teams every year, doesn’t. Parity is the greatest fallacy in the NBA. The obvious truth is only a handful of teams have a realistic shot at winning the title. So I have made the easy determination that I would rather enjoy watching talent over grit. I implore all you loyal readers to adopt the same mindset. If not, you may be perpetually dissatisfied with your team.

Case in point is Brian Scalabrine, the most famous 12th man in the NBA. His popularity is so immense because of one main fact; he is similar to the majority of fans. In normal society Scal would be a really tall guy who could play sport swell. In the NBA, he is what we imagine ourselves to be: a white guy with comparatively minimal athletic ability who scraps whenever he is in the game. His likability is easy to comprehend because white America sees itself whenever he walks on the court ten times a year. There is no way he actually helps his team in any measurable way, yet fans still faun over him like he is an integral part of a championship contender. While he may be a good guy to have in the locker room and a safe interview, his intangibles don’t come close to making up for his lack of skills and athletic ability. I have nothing against the guy, but there is no reason beyond the color of his skin and hair that should make him a fan favorite. You don’t see people rooting so fervently for Solomon Jones or Dominic McGuire.

Fans are a fickle group as evidenced by their seemingly contradictory point of view when cheering for their teams. If there is one thing everyone enjoys and roots for sheepishly its displays of extreme athleticism. Pure athleticism and the publics’ glaring lack thereof, is what often draws sports fans in. We watch to see super humans do what we never even thought was possible. If you could create a player that combines supreme athleticism and a penchant to take contested 3’s in crunch time and throw down 360 alley-oops you have the recipe for the most entertaining player in sports. I assert that the perfect concoction of that prodigious athleticism and blatant arrogance is manifested in the incomparable JR Smith.

Most of you reading this already know, but for those who don’t I have a bit of a man crush on one Earl Smith III. The man embodies everything an athlete should be. Because he is not playing for the Lakers, Celtics, or other true contender he gets a pass for not being as selfless or fundamentally sound as some of his counterparts. The Nuggets aren’t going to win a championship anytime in the near or distant future so why do people criticize him for playing the game the way millions of fans wish they could? He plays without shame or acknowledgment of the consequences. Flying up and down the court, putting the ball in the basket, and adding flare to it all is his goal. His unapologetic nature and unflappable confidence is what makes him truly special. A player of less ability would have been out of the league years ago. But his athleticism and potential ensures his spot on an NBA roster year after year. There may not be a more entertaining player in the league and he has won my heart a thousand times over.

In no way am I saying he is one of the best players in the league or would even be good for a team with a real shot at the Larry O’Brien Trophy. He is simply the player with the greatest propensity to entertain. And entertainment is what fans should desire most. That last sentence seems so simple, but so many fans have strayed from what originally captured their attention. They get caught up in what the experts say and seemingly don’t realize that it’s not as fun to watch a bunch of team players with 20 inches verticals who can’t shoot outside of ten feet. If that’s truly the case than go out to the rec center and catch a pickup game between some 50 year old accountants.

So talent or heart, which would you take? I hope we, as fans, all use our talents and pick the former.